Monday, November 27, 2017

Doctor Who - We've Waited This Long For 'Shada,' So What's Another...YEAR?!?!?!?!?

Doctor Who - We've Waited This Long For 'Shada,' So What's Another...YEAR?!?!?!?!?

Now scheduled for sometime between September and December of 2018

Posted by David Lambert

11/27/2017

Several weeks ago we told you that Doctor Who - Story #109: Shada, the abandoned-in-1979 production with the 4th Doctor, had been finished with animation, and that Tom Baker had returned to voice The Doctor, and Lalla Ward returned to voice his companion, Romana, a fellow Gallifreyan. The story was written by Douglas Adams (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency). It's been reported that Baker even donned the outfit and scarf for a live-action scene in the now-finished production. Shada was released in the UK last week as a digital download, and will be on disc in the UK next week. We passed along word at the beginning of this month that the title would be released on DVD in the USA and Canada on January 9th.

But that's no longer the case.

The BBC Shop's entry for the item no longer lists ANY date for this DVD, instead saying "Pre-Order - Ships When Available." Amazon.com has changed at the top to say "Currently Unavailable," and if you scroll down to the "Product details" section of that listing it gives a date of December 18, 2018...a year and three weeks from today! The Amazon.ca (Canada) listing has not been changed yet. However, a Canadian retailer has sent us a screen shot from Warner Home Video of Canada's password-protected B2B site, showing that the studio has issued a "street date correction": the old date shown is 1/9/2018, and the new street date listed is 9/4/2018. Our guess (and it's just a guess!) is that the September 4th date is probably the MOST correct one RIGHT NOW...but that this date is SO far away that it would be foolish of us to consider it "finalized." It's highly subject to change. So instead of picking either of those dates, we're removing the item from our site's calendar right now, and in our listing for Doctor Who - Story #109: Shada on DVD, we're going to simply show the release date as "Pending" until we get a solid new date on this title.

We're not sure what the reason for the change is, but we suspect the delay in rolling this out is to give BBC America an opportunity to broadcast Shada in their own good time, and introduce the item to North America audiences that way. And then tie in the DVD release with that event. The folks at the BBC might even want to put it up for a brief run in theaters in the USA (and possibly Canada), as they have done in the past with some Doctor Who specials. In the meantime, we'll have the Doctor Who - 2017 Christmas Special: Twice Upon A Time to enjoy on the 25th, and that will come to DVD and Blu-ray on February 20th. Do you need some more visits to the Doctor, to keep you in a TARDIS frame of mind in the meantime? For myself, I just ordered a newly-released card game, Doctor Who Fluxx. There's more about that game here, for those who are interested. And stay tuned for more news about Doctor Who - Story #109: Shada on DVD. We'll update you, as further developments occur!